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Chapter Text

• Sleep's For the Weak •

Raven walked into the dark Stark kitchen with fuzzy socks on. It was around three-thirty in the morning and she was sure enough that everyone was asleep. She rubbed her eyes and opened the refrigerator, and grabbed five Coca-Cola cans.

Raven felt her eyes get heavy, screaming for them to be closed, but she forced the drowsiness to be ignored. She quickly popped one open and forced herself to swallow, despite the burning sensation.

Satisfied, she placed the empty can down and sat down on the stool to continue gulping them down, one by one. Quickly finishing a few cans, she placed them aside and laid her head down on her folded forearms on the table.

Truth be told, she had another nightmare. It was possibly the worst of all, but she didn't want to wake anyone up, so she decided that getting away from her room and thought drinking soda would help her.

Raven felt her eyes closing, but she fought the urge to do so. It was like a game. If she closes her eyes, she would re-live everything in a dream-state and lose, but if she drives her self into sleep-deprivation, she would win.

It was an unhealthy game that she's been playing for a week and, even with the three cans of drunken soda, she lost.

She allowed herself to close her eyes and drift into a relaxing state that her body has been aching for these past few days. After a couple of minutes, she found herself getting comfortable and cozy.

"Raven," was heard in the distance, but the young girl couldn't care less. "Raven?" was heard again and she never responded. It was until the last "Raven" was closer and much more clear.

Raven's eyes shot open and she violently jumped on her stool as she felt a hand touch her back.

"Hey, it's okay," the owner of the voice soothed. "It's only me and Bucky."

She followed what was said and immediately calmed down, leaning against Steve's stomach. "What are you guys doing here?" she tried not to wince at how hoarse her voice sounded.

"I saw Steve walking down the hall, so I followed him and here we are," Bucky retorted. "JARVIS, turn on the lights, will you?"

Raven winced as the lights were quickly turned on, bright and all. She squinted her eyes until they adjusted to the brightness.

Steve and Bucky looked around and saw the Coca-Cola cans on the table. Bucky furrowed his brows at her, "You drunk all of these?"

Eyes half-open, Raven tiredly nodded her head.

"Raven," Steve disapprovingly spoke. He moved away from behind her, careful that she wouldn't fall back, and crossed his arms, "It is way too early for this type of stuff, especially when you have school later on. Are you trying to hurt yourself?"

Raven spun in her seat to face the super-soldiers, "Uhm...no?" she responded tiredly. She didn't really know what he said, she was too tired and she continued to feel the ache in her body.

"What, every night you come here and drinksugary stuff that can destroy your body?" Bucky gently grabbed her chin to force her to look at him. He saw that she couldn't even keep her eyes open and that they were red and her face had tear tracks--she was an overall mess. "Kiddo, what happened?"

Steve stared at her in disbelief, "You're obviously not." Raven was always cheerful and energetic. Lately, she's been acting...dejected and down; it was extremely unchracteristic.

"Sweetheart," Bucky rubbed her shoulder with his metallic arm, "listen, it's no secret that you haven't been sleeping. What's going on?"

"Nothing," Raven mumbled, brushing Buckyoff of her. She made a reach for her unfinished soda can, but Steve was quick to take a hold of it. She exhaled through her nose, "Steve, give it back."

"No," he walked over to the trash and threw it away, alongside with the rest of the empty soda cans. "You can't do this to yourself. Go back to bed and get some rest. You're lucky that I didn't consider calling T'Challa out here to deal with you, young lady."

Raven huffed as she got out of the stool and marched away from them, going back into her room.

Bucky sighed. It was scary to see her suddenly change personalities in the last couple of days. He didn't know what to do and same goes for the rest of the Avengers as they noticed her behavior--he couldn't even imagine how T'Challa is trying to handle it.

"Something's most definitely wrong. That's not our ray of sunshine we know," Steve sadly told Bucky, placing his hands on his hips.

Bucky rubbed his face and swung an arm around his best friend, "Let's just go back to bed. We all need the sleep."